Catalytic cracking is widely used today to reduce heavy hydrocarbons into lighter and more useful products. One commonly used cracking catalyst is a type of crystalline inorganic synthetic products called “Y zeolites.” The Y zeolites typically contain silica having discrete pores in the range 6.5 to 13.5 Å. The Y zeolites also have higher surface area and acidity as compared to other types of catalyst such as amorphous silica-alumina based catalysts. As a result, Y zeolites can generate improved catalytic activity and selectivity towards gasoline.
When preparing Y zeolites, retaining catalytic activity can be difficult. For example, the Y zeolites can be sensitive to extreme pH conditions and other process conditions. Current solutions include using basic phosphate source to improve catalytic activity of the catalyst, but at the same time, attrition resistance of the catalyst has to be sacrificed. Hence, there is a need to develop a process for maintaining catalytic activity of high silica zeolites without sacrificing attrition resistance and apparent bulk density (ABD) of resulting catalyst.